European colonialists destroyed local food sovereignty to make way for industrial crop cultivation. In North America, they wiped out the bison so that they could raise cattle and grow wheat on the prairies instead. In West Africa, they distributed peanut and soybean seeds free of charge to local farmers so that they could produce oil for export, thereby displacing the traditional Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), a legume that had provided the local population with a cheap, resource-efficient and nutritious staple food that did not depend on imported fertilisers and minerals for its cultivation.
(mehr …)